Thursday, October 19, 2006

Hypocrisy And Politics

James Kotthoff

While catching up on my blog reading I ran across a piece on La Shawn Barber’s Corner that started my little thought train a chugging. The piece is about Blogger Mike Rogers “outing” Senator Larry Craig. I would recommend the piece highly. What really got me thinking was the comments section and the responses it contained. The big concern from the lefty quarters was the “hypocrisy” of Senator Craig. A supposed homosexual who votes and speaks out against pro homosexual issue. It started me thinking about what is really hypocritical behavior and what is not. You might know what I mean. It was a make you go hmmm moment. Not surprisingly I disagree with the posters who label the senator a hypocrite because of his alleged sexuality.

Now understand I don’t care one way or the other as far as homosexuality is concerned. To me sexuality should be a private issue as long as it is between consenting adults. The gay marriage issue I do have opinions on. I have no problem with same sex civil unions since the financial and benefit issues should be taken care of. I don’t support same sex “marriage” because to me the concept of marriage is a religious one. I don’t feel that the government nor the courts should force a religion to accept that which it may be opposed to for religious grounds. The MSM and liberals always scream about separation of church and state. Which is a myth in and of itself (but that is a different rant). So I am kind of middle of the road on this issue.

The issue I do have in mind is what would make a politician a hypocrite. Now keeping in mind that this is strictly a matter of my opinion I will tell you. When a politician puts his or her own personal beliefs or agenda ahead of the will of the people who elected that person. That politician is a hypocrite. The only job of a politician is to represent the will of the majority of those he or she represents. It doesn’t matter if you are talking city council (or alderman in some cases) or the President Of The United States. Every single person is not in office to push their own agenda or act based on their personal beliefs. They are simply their to represent the views, interests and will of the majority of those they represent.

Senator Craig should be opposing homosexual issues and speaking out against them. A majority of the citizens that he represents are against same sex marriage and other pro-homosexual issues. Senator Craig would be a hypocrite only if he supported the issues knowing his constituents oppose those issues.Now if you want to really see hypocritical politicians look at congress and the White House on the issue of immigration reform. A large majority of American citizens want the border secured before any other immigration issue is discussed. A majority are opposed to any “amnesty” or guest worker program that rewards Illegal immigrants.

To a majority of American citizens immigration and Illegal immigration are separate issues. The open-borders groups and the MSM may not understand this fact but it is true none the less. We as a country have allowed the politicians to forget what their job is and who are their employers. But that doesn’t change the fact that elected officials in Washington DC and around the country are hypocrites for putting special interest groups and personal beliefs ahead of the will of the people. A politician works for his constitituents, not special interests or foreign governments.

I leave you with a quote attributed to Guy Fawkes in the movie “V For Vendetta”

“The people should not fear the government, the government should fear the people”

Maybe it is time for the people to put the fear back into the government